Oops! Birth Control Pills Recalled Over Placebo Mixup

Pill batches have two weeks' worth of placebos instead of one

A batch of birth control pills is being recalled in Canada because there was a mixup in production.

The pills — Alysena-28 made by Apotex — have two weeks’ worth of placebos instead of one, CBC reports. That means that women who take them might be unprotected against pregnancy during the week where they aren’t using the active pills.

Pharmacies have been responding to the recall — which was recently upgraded to the most serious Type 1 by Health Canada — by attempting to contact customers with the pills. One drugstore in London, Ontario, is offering free pregnancy tests or morning-after pills to women with the bad batch. Others are going through their lists of women who were using the drug and calling them to bring the recall to their attention.

The bad batch of pills has been on the market since last December and contains the batch number, “LF01899A.” They were distributed to all Canadian provinces except Alberta and Saskatchewan.